Potato Days will try to set two world records

By Sean Ellis

Idaho Farm Bureau Federation

MERIDIAN - Participants at this year's Potato Days festival in Meridian will have a chance to witness, or be part of, two world records.

Organizers believe they will almost assuredly succeed in one of their world record attempts: most baked potatoes served in a single day at one place.

That record was set in Peru and sits at more than 3,200 potatoes and Potato Days organizer Thomas Watson says it should be the easiest of the event's two world record attempts.

"Last year, we served over 11,000 people meals, so that's going to be the easier one to break," he says.

The other record attempt is the largest potato sack race, which is currently at 2,095 people and was set in the Netherlands.

"Let's bring some of these records to Idaho," Watson says. "It would be fun for the potato state to own the Guiness world records relating to potatoes."

The 2025 festival, which will take place from Sept. 19-21, will draw an estimated 25,000 people this year to Kleiner Memorial Park, across from The Village in Meridian.

Watson and fellow organizers started the festival in 2023 when they did an online search and realized there were no potato-themed celebrations in the Boise area.

In Shelley in East Idaho, thousands of people celebrate the potato every year, an event that literally the entire city and more turns out for.

Shelley is the epicenter of potato production in Idaho, and the United States, and it makes sense for the people who live in that area to celebrate it. Heck, the mascot for Shelley High School is the Russet.

Watson said he wanted to see the same type of enthusiasm for the potato in the Treasure Valley of southwestern Idaho, the state's largest urban center by far.

Idaho leads the nation in total potato production and the state's farmers produce about 14 billion pounds of spuds each year.

The potato, the product that Idaho is most known for, brings in billions of dollars in economic activity to the state each year and that impact extends beyond just East Idaho.

"We want people in the city to recognize and appreciate the farmer the way people in rural Idaho do," says Watson, director of Idaho Business Alliance, which organizes Potato Days.

He says organizers have been pleasantly surprised by turnout for the event.

They were hoping between 1,000 and 3,000 people would show up during the event's inaugural year, but when thousands of people began flowing into Kleiner Park from every direction that first year, they knew they were on to something special.

"The easiest thing that we've ever had to advertise is Potato Days," Watson says. "People flock to the event because of what it is and what it represents. And it doesn't have to do with probably anything other than it's Potato Days and we live in Idaho and we should go to Potato Days."

The Potato Days event is supported by the Idaho Potato Commission, which donates the free schwag that is handed out during the event. Among the prizes are pallets of potato-themed toys, stickers, coloring and recipe books, photo books and replicas of the Big Idaho Potato Truck.

And thousands of Spuddy Buddies, the stuffed IPC mascot that has turned out to be a very hot item at Potato Days.

"It's shocking to see how badly these kids want Spuddy Buddy," Watson says. "They really want Spuddy Buddy."

Idaho Potato Commission CEO Jamey Higham says the IPC supports Potato Days for the same reason it sponsors other potato-related events in Idaho, such as the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl and Idaho Potato Marathon.

"We're creating these potato ambassadors everywhere they go because they're pretty darn proud of their state and its connection with potatoes," he says.

Higham says it is nice to see the city folk in Idaho get so excited about the potato.

"There was a time 25 or 30 years ago when (some) people in Idaho were trying to disassociate themselves from the potato industry and now I feel like it's kind of cool to be supportive of the industry," he says. "I think it's a great thing that the Boise area is celebrating the spud like this."

This year's Potato Days event is being sponsored by county Farm Bureau organizations in the Treasure Valley area.

"We're really happy to see a major event right here in Idaho's main population center celebrating the Idaho potato and agriculture," said Ada County Farm Bureau President Neil Durrant, who farms in the Meridian-Kuna area. "Ada County Farm Bureau board members are excited about this event and were happy to help support it."

This year's festival will have a lot more potato meals than the first two. Gone will be the dozens of food trucks that were theoretically supposed to incorporate potatoes into at least one of their meals.

Potato Days organizers, supported by volunteers, will instead cook all of the food and it will all be potato-based and loaded with toppings.

"We're doing months and months of food preparation and figuring out how to serve people quickly, how to get people through a line in 60 to 120 seconds each," Watson says.

Organizers invested in a large commercial kitchen to achieve this.

"It's taken us almost an entire year just to reinvent the food at Potato Days," Watson says. "It's been a difficult task, but we're finally there."

At last year's event, thousands of potato-based meals were served, but about 10,000 served meals were not potato-based.

"The No. 1 thing we hear from people after the event is that they want more potatoes," Watson says.

"Most people, when they hear about Potato Days, their brain immediately goes to food," he says. "You are expecting a lot of potato-based items at reasonable prices, so that's really what we want to deliver on."

"We want all of the meals to have something to do with potatoes directly," he adds. "Not a side dish, but the actual meal."

Potato Days is partnering with some local chefs to help run the food operation and the Idaho Potato Commission has offered advice on how to best prepare the various potato dishes.

Watson knows he will end up helping with the food preparation at some point during the festival.

"I will absolutely end up in the kitchen with an apron on," he laughs.

As usual, Potato Days will be filled with dozens of different potato games and other events, such as a sidewalk chalk art contest, all centering around the spud.

There will also be plenty of bouncy castles and other attractions to keep the kids busy, such as a bubble garden.

Watson said it's not known for now what the crowd limit for the event can or should be, and organizers are focused on keeping it a free, fun family-friendly event centered around celebrating the state's humble but important potato.

If organizers remain focused on perfecting the experience, the growth of the event will take care of itself, he says.

"We really see Potato Days as a family tradition and we are looking for ways to make it a bigger, better family tradition every year," he says. "I like the idea that we're delivering a free, fun family experience and that families can count on it now every September."